Taiwan proposes free trade pact with ASEAN

Taiwan proposes free trade pact with ASEAN

Reuters, Kuala Lumpur

Taiwan has told the Association of Southeast Asian Nations
(ASEAN) that it wants talks on a free trade agreement, a move
likely to be blocked by China which is in the middle of its own
negotiations.

"I would like to propose that ASEAN take the next logical
step, to agree to form an ASEAN-Taiwan FTA," Steve Ruey-Long
Chen, Taiwan's Deputy Minister of Economic Affairs, told a
business forum held in the Malaysian capital.

The move by the island state of 23 million people follows last
year's agreement between China and ASEAN to start talks on
creating the world's largest free-trade bloc.

The Association of South East Asian Nations groups Brunei,
Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines,
Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam.

Taiwan's efforts to join other global trade groups have been
blocked by China, which considers the island part of its
territory and fears such membership would imply Taiwan
sovereignty.

Mirzan Mahathir, Asian Strategy and Leadership Institute of
Malaysia president, said the process of trying to start an ASEAN
trade deal with Taiwan would not be easy.

"I guess it will go through the normal turbulence that Taiwan
and China usually face in these matters," he told Reuters.

Chen said two-way trade between Taiwan and ASEAN nations
reached US$32.4 billion in 2002 -- 4.92 percent higher than in
2001.

"This figure accounted for 13.35 percent of our total global
trade," Chen said.

"For Taiwanese investors, ASEAN as a whole is our second
largest destination for outbound investment only after mainland
China."